A mapping data blank region frequently exists while mapping due to the regional and phased attributes of multi-beam sounding. For the beauty of the prepared maps, it needs to supplement submarine topography data from other sources, such as historical topography map (including paper medium and electronic topography map), global topography library data, satellite altimetry data and single-beam sounding, and the like. However, the accuracy of the data is far cry from that of the multi-beam sounding. How to have an opportunity to integrate multi-source data is a more difficult problem in preparing the submarine topography map.
The multi-beam sounding represents the most advanced contemporary marine mapping technology and is the preferred data for charting submarine topography maps. The single-beam sounding data has higher accuracy; however, due to the limit of the investigation cost, the mapping lines are generally rarer, which are difficult to prepare a high accuracy technology map, and particularly difficult to prepare a three-dimensional submarine topography map having a sense of reality. The advantage of vectorized data of published large-scale map or nautical chart is that the accuracy of the data in a nearshore shoal water region is higher; however, a larger accuracy problem mostly exists in an abyssal region. A common practice to use paper map data is direct vectorization, thus obtaining linear data of a target sea region, and then splicing the data with that of the multi-beam sounding region through a manual splicing manner. However, it is very difficult to splice a map when mapping counter spacing differs largely from paper map counter spacing. Secondly, it is more difficult to construct a counter tree to achieve topology coloring or charting a three-dimensional submarine topography map. The accuracy of the water depth data measured through satellite altimetry and global topography library is poorer. Particularly, there are large differences between the data in the sea region shallower than 200 m water depth while being contrasted with that of the data measured through multi-beam sounding, and even a situation of frequently intersections between the counters and islands occurs. Usually, this kind of data is not used in a nearshore region and is only used as a kind of supplementary data for charting a submarine topography map in a pelagic deep water region.
Upon the analysis on the basis of retrieved public data, there is no mature technical method for solving the effective splicing problem of multi-source data in charting a submarine topography map; and particularly, no art is available for the seamless splicing and integration of multi-source data from multi-beam sounding, satellite altimetry, single-beam sounding, historical topography map, and the like.